Volunteerism Has Been Around For 2,000 Years

RELIGION - FROM THE PULPIT

June 7, 1997

Ahoy, Columbus! I think I see something!

Columbus, so my history book says, discovered the New World in 1492. I don't suppose that it occurred to Columbus or anyone else that the New World had been there equally as long as the Old World, or that the New World held secrets that the Old World had yet to discover.

Poet Ogden Nash hit the nail on the head. He wrote a poem with a seven-word title: ''An Essay on the Antiquity of Fleas.'' The poem itself encompassed only two words: ''Adam Had'em.''

There is a well-known axiom that ''history repeats itself.'' What that boils down to is the fact that many of the things that seem new to us may not be new at all.

There was a great celebration in the latter part of April. All the glitterati were there: the president and three former presidents - the fourth former proprietor of the oval office was represented by his wife. There was a retired general plus a plethora of business and social leaders on the rostrum. What was the cause that brought such a divergent group together under the same banner? Volunteerism!

''We have discovered something new,'' they trumpeted. Pardon me! Did I miss something? The largest organization of volunteers and the world's finest promoter of volunteerism was born two thousand years ago!

For 20 centuries it has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, assisted the afflicted. And that hardly begins to describe its volunteer activities.

What the conference in Philadelphia was promoting as new is as old as the Church of Jesus Christ.

Granted, we have dropped the ball. We gave the public school system to the secularists 50 years ago, and what passes for social service was taken out of the church and made a political football somewhat earlier.

But we invented volunteerism. Or, at least, our founder did. That we have failed to maintain the momentum is not his fault but ours.

Still the Church remains the bastion of volunteerism today. Scratch any congregation's surface and you will find food banks, counseling services, child care and family assistance.

Volunteer choirs sing directed quite often by volunteer directors. Volunteer teachers conduct not only Bible study classes but instruction in hundreds of secular subjects as well. Volunteer ushers keep order and care for the many and unexpected needs of worshipers. Without its volunteers, any church would collapse like Jericho's walls.

Volunteerism a new concept? No way!

Our thanks go out to Bill Clinton, Colin Powell and the horde of folks who put the Philadelphia frolic in motion. It is a good thing that they are publicizing, and I don't want to knock it. But my guess is that they will find the bulk of the volunteers for their new effort coming from the old, but often overlooked, institution: the Church of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps they feel that they have discovered something entirely new. But, then, so did Columbus!